{"id":222071,"date":"2026-01-07T21:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T21:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/222071\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T21:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T21:10:09","slug":"marine-research-superyacht-makes-stop-in-dunedin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/222071\/","title":{"rendered":"Marine research superyacht makes stop in Dunedin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-family:'Sohne',Arial,Sans-serif;display: flex;align-items: center;font-size: 14px;\" class=\"story-paragraph odt-paragraph\">By Ruby Shaw of <a style=\"background: none !important;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.odt.co.nz\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"116px\" height=\"15px\" style=\"display: flex;background: none;\" alt=\"Otago Daily Times\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/odt-a3f52f016b5d21fae8aca72fbb69e58b8439bf0fdf30aba3f98039884063f926.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4JV4VJE_pangaea_ocean_explorer_0701_jpg.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"503\" alt=\"The super yacht Pangaea Ocean super yacht off Roseneath on Wednesday.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nThe superyacht Pangaea Ocean Explorer off Roseneath yesterday.<br \/>\nPhoto: Otago Daily Times \/ Stephen Jaquiery\n<\/p>\n<p>An Australian billionaire&#8217;s $69 million superyacht, which doubles as a marine research vessel, has cruised into Dunedin.<\/p>\n<p>The Pangaea Ocean Explorer arrived in Port Otago on Wednesday from Port Lyttelton, sailing under the Jamaican flag.<\/p>\n<p>The 58m yacht is owned by Australian businessman Andrew Forrest, executive chairman and former chief executive of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/thedetail\/532255\/clean-green-mining-as-corporate-branding\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">global metal mining company Fortescue<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In 2025, Financial Review ranked Dr Forrest as the eleventh richest person in Australia, with a network of $14.81 billion.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4MB1PLJ_copyright_image_262594.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"700\" alt=\"Fortescue Metals Group chairperson Andrew Forrest on 27 March 2019.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nAndrew Forrest pictured in 2019.<br \/>\nPhoto: Jack \/ Imaginechina via AFP\n<\/p>\n<p>Much of his philanthropy has focused on education, Indigenous Australians and ending modern slavery.<\/p>\n<p>In 2023, his Minderoo Foundation partnered with the Australian government to monitor the health of marine parks, contributing $8.4m and using the Pangaea Ocean Explorer which was adapted for use as a research vessel.<\/p>\n<p>It is valued at $69m with annual operating expenses of about $6.9m.<\/p>\n<p>Yacht charter website Charter World advised similar models could be hired for up to $950,400 per week.<\/p>\n<p>Built in 1999, it has six cabins and can host 12 passengers and more than 13 crew.<\/p>\n<p>It is not the first superyacht to appear in Dunedin this season.<\/p>\n<p>In December, the 49.1m superyacht Teleost, owned by former Microsoft chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold, docked in the harbour.<\/p>\n<p>It could be chartered for $336,000 per week, plus expenses &#8211; a similar model could be bought for about $25.8m.<\/p>\n<p>This story was first published by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.odt.co.nz\/news\/dunedin\/marine-research-superyacht-makes-stop-dunedin\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Otago Daily Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ruby Shaw of The superyacht Pangaea Ocean Explorer off Roseneath yesterday. Photo: Otago Daily Times \/ Stephen&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-222071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}